Category: Late-Night Writing
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Seth Meyers Did Not Steal My Joke
Ideas get stolen in show business all the time but less often than you might think. I teach a class in comedy writing for late-night TV. A couple of nights ago I was giving my students some practice in turning newspaper articles into monologue jokes. Toward the end of the session I mentioned an article…
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5 Reasons To Do Field Pieces
Why aren’t Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers doing more field pieces on their shows? Field pieces, or “remotes,” are comedy pieces that are shot outside the studio. They’re great for comedy/talk shows. Here are 5 reasons why. 1) It’s fun to see the host out in the real world for a change. Watching the same…
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Comedy Writing Is Not Rocket Science
If you know the techniques, tricks, and rules, comedy writing isn’t as hard as it looks. When I was co-head writer of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno I directed a sketch featuring Jay and astronaut Story Musgrave. The sketch was a comedy tour of Space Center Houston, the official visitor center of the Lyndon…